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The Publication of Applied Scholastics for Oregon
August of 1996. Legendary musi
cian,
Isaac
Hayes— World
Literacy Crusade's International
What is Applied
Scholastics?
Spokesm an— cam e to Portland
for the grand opening celebration,
and with Reverend Johnson, was
on hand for the ribbon cutting.
During the first year alone,
over l(X) adults ;uxl children rang
ing in age from 6 to 86. participated
in programs offered at the center.
"It is alarming to see the litera
cy lev el o f some of the children that
walk through our doors. Some
have been diagnosed with ADD
Others are on die brink of being put
on Ritalin. Some have just lost
interest in schixil and are just going
through the motions. None of these
children suffer from a lack of intel
ligence— they just need to be given
the proper tools," says Portland
WLC tutor, Dave McKevitt.
He continues. "What makes
this program unique is that it is not
just about tutoring people so they
can do better in school or their jobs
As they are being tutored, they are
learning to be tutors themselves
which in itself raises then sell
worth. We are not prov iding a ser
vice and letting them walk out the
door with a better understanding of
particular subject. We are giving
the know ledge of how to
learn which they will take
with them and use in life
long after they have gradu
ated this program."
Portland community
Applied Scholastics is a operate in 29 countries on 6
continents. Oregon is the
non-profit, public benefit
corporation whose purpose home of several Applied
Scholastics affiliated
is to improve education
organizations: World
worldwide.
Literacy Crusade (WLC)
This organization was
Portland. Columbia
established 25 years ago by
Academy and the Delphian
educators who had achieved
School.
miraculous results using
In this issue we have
L. Ron Hubbard’s educational
focused on the work being
methods known as Study
Technology. It has grown into done by Applied Scholastics
in Oregon and elsewhere.
a vital hope for the work! in
We hope this will
the handling of
help you open
illiteracy and
the door to
educational failure.
educational
Applied
success in your
Scholastics™
community.
programs now
sM s
L'catninyf
and
make matters worse, it is
estimated that 85% of juve
niles who appear in court are
functionally illiterate.
Who doesn’t know a child
who has had difficulty with a
particular subject, is bored
with school or perceives edu
cation as something to be
endured rather than embraced?
How will education help a
child if a lack of understand
ing leads him or her to resort
to sheer memorization, acting
up in school or dropping out
altogether?
All of these seemingly
insurm ountable
problem s
brings me back to my own
skepticism. After consider
able inspection, as well as by
teaching Study Technology
to children myself, my skep
ticism disappeared. The
answer to my original ques
tion about Study Technology,
“Is it effective?” was a
resounding “YES”. I could
tell you success after success
from students who had been
labeled “unteachable” whose
lives were turned around by
Study Technology— my 10-
wide range
year-old niece included. In
fact, the com petence and
renewed enthusiasm
for
learning in both children and
adults that I have witnessed
over the past few years as a
result of the Study Technology
would make even the greatest
skeptic sit up and take notice.
We live in an environment
of perplexed, yet well-inten
tioned teachers, parents and
school administrators. I am
not only relieved, but elated to
tell you that, whether we are
talking about solving the prob
lems of the inner city or help
ing children who live in the
West Hills of Portland, there is
a solution. That solution is
called Applied Scholastics. It
is not a panacea, but a vital
educational tool that should
not be overlooked.
ver the past few
years, I have
had extensive
in v o lv e m e n t
w ith
Applied
Scholastics and a
of programs that use L. Ron
Hubbard’s Study Technology.
In fact, one o f my most mem
orable experiences occurred
a few years ago when I visit
ed the original
World
Literacy Crusade program in
South Central Los Angeles. I
was thoroughly im pressed
with the unwavering faith
these people had in what they
were doing. However, being
som ew hat o f a skeptic I
w asn’t as interested in good
intentions as much as I was
in results.
It would seem as though
education results would be
param ount in a society
where sc h o o ls are in crisis.
Com m unities across the
c o u n try
fin d te a c h e rs ,
parents and school adm inis
trators are scram bling for
solutions, and with good rea
son. The number o f students
- ‘H d/a n j (f \a tw n
being put on Ritalin in order
to handle “learning disor Executive Director
ders” is skyrocketing. To World Literacy Crusade
O
Issue 1
Learning how to learn
instills self-esteem in youth
onnie was about to spend the
rest of his life in jail. Arrested for
cocaine possession, this was his
third offense, his Third Stnke.
His time was up.
He had been hixiked on drugs for years.
He had started sniffing paint and glue when he
was eleven, and had worked his wav through
pot and pills to heroin, LSD. and finally,
R
cocaine. He knew that he took the drugs to
stein the pain of his illiteracy— Ronnie had a
2nd grade reading lev el— but he knew of noth
ing that could remedy that He had been
kicked out of almost twenty schools by the
time he dropped out half way through 6th
grade.
But then he had fallen in love and had
married. He had even managed to stay clean
for several years, and had run his own thriving
hardwixxl floor finishing business. He had
never learned to read beyond the 2nd grade,
but his detemiination and love for his wife and
the three young children they now had,
seemed enough to carry him through.
But soon the demons wormed their way
back into his life, and he found himself hooked
on cocaine once again. Not only that, his wife
was now hooked as well He was about to face
the judge on this, his third arrest, the final
straw. He needed help, he needed it fast, and
he needed it to work a miracle.
And that's just what he found. While liv
ing in a shelter, he heard o f a group called the
World Literacy Crusade, and he decided he'd
better go and find out about it.
Ronnie met Reverend Alfreddie Johnson,
the preacher that founded and ran the commu
nity center, and immediately started on one of
the courses they offered. He learned right
away about the Study Technology developed
by L. Ron Hubbard.
“I love the study tech," said Ronnie in a
recent interview. "It has given me a new life. I
have the knowledge and ability to learn any
thing now. There are no limits, only those
limits that 1 have put on myself." Ronnie is now
drug-free, and works as a tutor teaching Mr.
Hubbard's methixl to youth at risk in his local
community. He has— within just the last six
months— increased his reading level from the
2nd grade to the 6th grade. He is continuing in
his studies, and knows he will make it to the top.
Ronnie’s dramatic turnaround is som e
thing that Rev. Johnson has seen on a nearly
daily basis since 1992, when he founded the
C rusade's first literacy project in Com pton,
California. By the end of that year, the pro-
Ronnie Brown tutors fo r the World Literacy
gram was so successful that it expanded to
several other locations in the US. There are
now chapters in San D iego, Portland,
Sacram ento, O range County, A tlanta,
Miami, Seattle and Harlem, to name a few.
"If you go into any American city and
look into the eyes of the young people, you
will see anger and alienation," said Rev.
Johnson. "W hy? They are surrounded by a
wealth of opportunity in this country, yet are
convinced such opportunity is not for them.
This is the result o f illiteracy.
"Kids in these neighhorhixxls don't have
'attention deficit,’ ” he adds. "They can play
video games six straight hours, play sports all
weekend, and chase down every dollar in a
drug deal while drunk or high. Don't tell me
they can’t learn to read.”
Rev. Johnson is convinced L. Ron
Hubbard’s Study Technology can resolve the
literacy problem and is expanding the World
Literacy Crusade to help even more. Thirty
chapters and hundreds of volunteers now
make up the World Literacy Crusade including
one in Portland.
The World Literacy Crusade™ center
located in Northeast Portland opened in
World Literacy Crusade
7327 Southwest Barnes Rd. #125
Portland. OR 97225
leaders have seen the
results for themselves.
A veteran advocate
for Portland’s youth. Rev.
Robert Richardson, had
this to say: “In my capac
ity as a gang specialist
consultant, I feel it has
been one of the most
needed
m ethods
of
empowering young gang
members to excel to anoth
er level of understanding.
One of the most impres
sive things about the World
Crusade.
Literacy Crusade curricu
lum and methixl of enhancing young people to
do better is giving them the ability to leant."
And what do young people say about this
program?
When Nairobi Davis was in the 5th grade,
she was reading at 2nd grade level and labeled
as “learning disabled." After being tutored on
Study Technology, she began reading at her
grade level. Now in 8th grade she has been
invited by four colleges to attend programs for
gifted students. Nairobi said, "Before. I didn't
want to go to schixil. Now, 1 understand and
feel good about school. 1 have learned better
methods of study. The program has helped me
have a better life and I am very happy."
Jorge, age 16. stated. "The program has
helped me a lot. It helped me to read better, to
write better and I would recommend this pro
gram to anybixly."
Dean, another graduate of the program in
Compton, had this to say: "I use the informa
tion in schixil to help get better grades for
myself. I think the people at Applied
Scholastics really care about young people."
And to sum it up. Cat. another young stu
dent said. "I learned that schixil means victory
and power.”
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